


Amnesty

by rabidsamfan



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Borrowed Character, Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Challenge Response, Chronology musings, Drabble Sequence, Gen, Non-Canonical Character Death, internet research
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-03
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 22:16:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1202509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidsamfan/pseuds/rabidsamfan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colonel Moran has made a mistake in London, and Holmes is heading for home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Premonition

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Covenant and the Oath](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/36463) by Pompey and KCS. 



> These drabbles were for the amnesty prompts of the July Writing Prompts at Watson's Woes. The first chapter is for the prompt "rhyme". Concerning the song, in the way of folksongs, I learned different words (and a slightly different tune) than I can find on the net, but if you'd like something close to what it might sound like try [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxFF40xPV7E&feature=related). My thanks to Pompey and KCS for allowing me to borrow Ives and the plot of their story.

_"I had a dream, the other night._  
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John."

The bosun sang with the capstan crew,  
As the cliffs of Dover came in view.

_"My love she came, all dressed in white.  
My Lowlands, away."_

A simple song, the work to ease,  
It drifted sweetly on the breeze.

_"She did not speak, no word she said.  
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John."_

A listener stood beside the rail,  
His visage had gone deathly pale.

_"And then I knew, my love was dead._  
My Lowlands, away."

Sherlock Holmes was caught unwary;  
Now he knew why he'd dreamt of Mary.


	2. Missive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word arrives in London

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sentence prompt.

Mycroft Holmes was not appreciative of being roused from his slumber a full three and one-half minutes prior to his customary seven o'clock a.m., but when he saw the familiar scrawl on the envelope his valet was holding out as an excuse he forgot his irritation. "Already?" he asked.

"The postmark is Dover, sir," Andrews answered. "I thought you might wish to have him intercepted."

Mycroft tore open the envelope, scanned the short note within, and shook his head. "No need," he sighed, wishing for once that omniscience were not a family trait. "He'll meet me at the funeral."


	3. Illusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At Mary's funeral.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the amnesty prompt of a pivotal plot point, as we enter into an AU.

When I rose to give the eulogy my mind could not fix upon the words, and I found myself staring at the mourners, wondering how many of Mary's friends would vanish from my life. My own friends were scattered and few, not counting the men I had met through Sherlock Holmes. Lestrade. Gregson. Even his brother, behind whose shoulder stood a man dressed in livery with grey eyes which were... were...

I stared at him for some seconds in utter amazement, and then it appears that I must have fainted for the first and the last time in my life.


	4. Tremor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A world turned upside down. Warning: Gruesome character death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follows [Illusion](http://rabidsamfan.livejournal.com/514564.html) for the amnesty challenge, and is, albeit tenuously, still part of the same story. And there's more [internet research](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1861_Sumatra_earthquake) if you like that sort of thing.

I remembered.

I remembered laughing with my brother as our parents followed us ashore at Padang in February of 1861. Our legs had grown accustomed to the motion of the sea, and we stumbled happily, exaggerating our difficulties, until suddenly the land itself began to shift and move, and the town began to crumble. I remembered my mother pushing me, thrusting me into my father's arms even as she was engulfed, chewed by teeth and claws of broken brick and wood. For months she haunted my dreams, shattered and headless.

Ghosts aren't real, my father promised me.

He was wrong.


	5. Relapse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When you fall, you never know who might catch you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ives is borrowed from [Pompey's](http://www.fanfiction.net/u/107193/Pompey) stories "On Afghanistan's Plains" and for this story, "The Covenant and the Oath". For the "playing in another sandbox" prompt.

I came to myself briefly as I was being lifted into a carriage, and caught a glimpse of a hand I knew as well as my own, the familiar scars standing out white against an unfamiliar tan. But I could not trace the hand to the face before the prick of a hypodermic needle sent me back into darkness.

When next I woke I was in a world of white sheets and carbolic, and Dr. Ives was standing by my bed. For a moment, I thought myself back in Peshawar, still gripped by typhoid fever.

"Was it all a dream?"


	6. Convalescence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Watson gains a locum

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ives is still borrowed from Pompey. For the "hurt/comfort" prompt

Not brain fever, but the same scarlatina which had taken Mary had laid me low, Ives explained, quite gently so I knew he still thought me half-mad with grief. Even moreso when he offered to accompany me back to Kensington, and act as my locum until I had recovered enough to resume my practice, having nothing better to do in his retirement.

I was glad of the company, but two weeks of endless cups of tea and solicitous inquiries finally broke my patience. "Why are you still here?" I demanded one morning.

Ives reddened. "I've been reading your correspondence again."


	7. Persecution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Watson reads a record of spiraling threats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The plot is borrowed from 'The Covenant and the Oath", but the prompt was for the collection of odd words.

An odd phrase here and there seemed to jump from the scrawled threats which Ives had kept sandwiched between the pages of my railway timetable. I was lower than a snake, it seemed; deserved to be bled white; was a proven coward, having survived Maiwand; would see justice done to me, and soon.

I looked at Ives. "You're not the only one getting them," he said. "Other doctors… other Army doctors from India, have been threatened. And one of them has been shot at." He shook his head. "Too bad your friend Holmes is dead."

"I don't think he is."


	8. Correspondence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When guardians collide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the "post it notes" prompt

W KNOWS STOP IVES

KNOWS WHICH QUERY M

KNOWS ABOUT THREATS STOP ALSO INSISTS S AVAILABLE QUERY IVES

THREATS STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION BY SCOTLAND YARD STOP M

W SAYS SCOTLAND YARD TOO SLOW STOP I AGREE STOP IVES

NO ONE HURT STOP M

YET STOP W INSISTS S AVAILABLE QUERY IVES

SUGGEST YOU RE-READ STRAND STOP M

THAT IS NOT AN ANSWER STOP IVES

W HAS EVIDENCE QUERY M

NO STOP BUT IS BEGINNING TO CONVINCE ME STOP IVES

BUT CAN HE CONVINCE ME QUERY M

W RECOVERED ENOUGH TO TRAVEL STOP IVES

BRING HIM TO DIOGENES WEDNESDAY STOP M


	9. Ouroborous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We don't always want what we ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for the Alpha and Omega prompt.

No sooner did Dr. Ives inform me that Mycroft Holmes had agreed to meet with me than my nightmares returned in force. My father’s words seemed to echo in my head, but ghosts did not get burned by the sun, and I pinned my hopes to that small discrepancy, and my anger to all the times that Holmes had left me ignorant of his plans. Round and round my hopes and fears and anger and doubts ran, until I was no longer sure whether I wanted to be right or wrong.

I only knew I wanted an end to uncertainty.


	10. Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Journeys end…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the "actions speak louder than words" prompt.

My limbs trembled as we were escorted through the corridors. So much depended on a memory so entangled in grief and fever that I was no longer confident it was true. Yet as we were escorted into the Stranger’s Room I kept my head high. It would not do to show a weakness to a man like Mycroft Holmes.

But it was not Mycroft Holmes who stood by the bay window. Not Mycroft who turned to face me with uncertainty in his grey eyes and a hand held out in unspoken apology.

I reached to take it. Words could wait.

**Author's Note:**

> These drabbles were originally posted here: http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/567674.html  
> http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/570220.html  
> http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/570455.html  
> http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/571583.html  
> http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/572450.html  
> http://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/574736.html


End file.
